Cosmos
by salvainterra
Summary: When Valerie sees Danny Fenton get dragged into the Ghost Zone and goes to rescue him, she doesn't find what she expects. No Phantom Planet. Oneshot. Includes reluctant Ghost King Danny.


**Little story I did for Phanniemay and then forgot about because who even has the time to write a story a day? Not me because I'm terrible. Yeah but basically I wanted Valerie/Trio interaction with her still not knowing about Danny and bonding with them so that they can all be good friends and fight ghosts together ;-; So I basically used the Ghost King prompt as an excuse for that haha... I should be working on the next chapter for my Gravity Falls + Danny Phantom crossover but this oneshot story was sitting in my files(with a bunch of other ones, actually) so I was like eh what the heck why not fix it up a little and post it. **

**Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Valerie studied the videos in front of her, tapping away on her computer in a rather accurate imitation of Tucker Foley. Every couple seconds, a new live video feed would replace the previous one, flickering through a bunch of different views. Her benefactor, Vlad Masters, had oh-so-generously given her these bugs to survey the city. Now that she knew the truth about him and the fact that he was actually an evil _ghost_, she was taking full advantage of his resources to find his weaknesses and use them against him. He had betrayed her trust, after all. Valerie growled just thinking about his smug, manipulative face. She considered just going and attacking him without a plan for a moment, for probably the fiftieth time, before dismissing it and focusing her attention on the monitor again. She couldn't afford to lose focus now, and miss any ghost scum that tried to terrorize the people. She had devoted too much to ghost hunting, her social life, her dignity, her physical well-being. She was undoubtedly the only teenager who had to deal with running off at all hours of the day and fighting vicious dead monsters. Nobody could understand exactly what it was she went through every day. She was alone in protecting the town from harm most of the time. Speaking of which, she levered her somewhat exhausted eyes back onto the screens. Her eyes widened and then narrowed as a flicker of movement finally caught her eye.

As an extra precaution, she had placed a bug next to the ghost portal in the Fenton's basement, and noticed that a few times ghosts had gone through the portal, or that Phantom punk had flushed some away from his stolen thermos. She still wasn't quite sure what her opinion on the white-haired ghost boy was. She really just didn't want to think about it at all. She dropped that trail of thought as she tracked the slight movement across her screen, zooming in.

Was that? Danny Fenton?

Her confusion was jacked up to panic as she saw two ghosts were pulling him to the open portal. His heels were dug into the ground, and his head was whipping back and forth so fast it almost gave Valerie second-hand whiplash. She saw his mouth move and moved her mouse to the audio button. She cast a look over her shoulder, checking for her dad, who would unquestionably be upset about her spying, and clicked the audio up, putting on headphones.

"-oing this like this is gonna blow it!"

Danny sounded irritated, but not as scared as Valerie would have pegged him to be. After all, he did run off every time a ghost showed up. One of the ghosts dragging him responded, sounding like he was frightened. Weird.

"It is required for the k-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, that doesn't mean I'm just goooooOOOOOOOOO-"

His voice cut out as he had been unknowingly herded next to the portal and then shoved in. The two ghosts exchanged nervous glances and one whispered to the other.

"Do you think he'll persecute us for that?"

If Valerie had heard, it surely would have caused some confusion for her.

But the only thing still at the monitor was her empty computer chair, spinning slightly.

Valerie was already gone.

* * *

The wind rushed in her ears as she raced on her hover board to the Fenton's home, the neon sign easily visible from almost anywhere in the city. Why had Danny been kidnapped? Was it because of his ghost hunting parents? Was it because of his association with her? Was this her fault? She had no idea.

When she finally reached the odd house, she tried the doorknob to find it was unlocked. It was a Saturday mid-morning, so the Fenton parents would either be asleep or out running errands. According to Danny, at least. For some reason, he knew all the right times to sneak into his house. She did exactly that, disabling the ghost defense system the way Danny had a hundred times when she came over to hang out, and swept down to the basement, still in her Red Hunter attire. Hopefully the suit alone would be enough to scare away any distractions. She had dismissed the idea of calling down the Fenton parents for help. Danny was great, but his parents were completely useless most of the time for anything other than scientific research when it came to ghosts. Not to mention she would have to reveal herself as the Red Huntress to them. Yeah, right. Not gonna happen.

The portal was still open, and she gulped nervously before steeling herself for her friend's sake and stepping through.

Her first thought in the Ghost Zone was that it was _cold! _She wondered if Danny was going to get hypothermia from being out here without a protective suit, and hurried her board on, searching the vast expense of green for the boy. She vaguely remembered the other time she'd been in the Ghost Zone, trapped by Skulker, and the area they were running in was practically tropical, unlike her chilly surroundings now. Maybe it varied in different parts? She didn't really care at the moment.

Her real world item detector couldn't seem to function properly, locking onto something and then dropping it suddenly, and then locking onto it again. It was confusing, but she followed it until she came to a large silver castle. The features and symbol on it were hard to make out, and she was so focused on squinting that she didn't realize her sensors were blinking until the invisible ghosts attacked, causing her to yell in alarm. They struck quickly, disabling her suit with what felt like an electric pulse and quickly stabbing what looked to be a tranquilizer in her leg, making her vision blurrier and her head spin almost instantly. Suddenly everything was a lot less important. She listened drowsily to the indistinct murmurs around her, until one voice rang clearer.

"Take her to the king then."

Her arms were as useful as limp noodles as she felt them be cuffed together behind her back. This set off vague alarm bells in her head, but she wasn't sure why. Her board had retreated into her shoes but she was still floating? Oh, the green guys were carrying her. She blinked hazily as she passed a lovely blurry pair of castle doors and descended down a hallway full of black torches with white fire. All the shiny white was kind of hurting her eyes. Another pair of doors was ventured past and then they were in a high ceilinged, round room with lots of stairs, leading up to a blurry figure slumped in a chair with two figures sitting nearby. At their arrival, the figure straightened up and the other two scurried away from her line of vision and then suddenly the green guys- ghosts were kneeling and pushing her to her knees as well and snatches of conversation reached her as fog began to clear from her mind.

"-_drugged_ her?"

"It was the only option at the time, other than to try and engage her in a battle."

"Alright, alright, I'll talk to her."

"I don't think-"

"Don't worry, I've got it."

"Regardless, I will be putting up the shield around the throne room."

"… fine, fine, whatever."

Suddenly the pressure left her and there were footsteps, and doors slamming, and a mechanical hum to signal the raising of the shield. Her mind was focusing now, shoving away the indistinct. She took a few more minutes to clear her head in the silence, and when she felt prepared, she raised her head to meet the eyes of whatever intensely powerful ghost had decided to pick a fight with her.

She didn't expect her eyes to meet irritatingly familiar neon green ones.

She firstly noticed the change in costume. The boy was wearing tailored clothes that didn't sit right with him by how he sat, slouched in the throne; a black tunic with his famous symbol and well-pressed black pants, and a long, draped, grey cloak that he had wrapped around his whole body like a security blanket. The cape was embroidered with white flames and of course, his symbol. What caught her eyes next were the white flaming crown on his head, and the silver band on his finger. Her mouth was agape as she processed what this meant, and suddenly the realization of what he'd done hit her and she snarled, summoning her suit. Phantom looked upset but unsurprised, and only huddled in his cape/blanket tighter as she flew up to meet him, leveling her gun barrel at him in threat.

"_You're_ the new Pariah Dark?"

He sighed, tense because of the glowing, humming gun aimed at him, and nodded sullenly.

"Unfortunately. I've got all these unneeded lackeys tripping over themselves to do stuff for me and I can't convince them to leave me alone."

"_You ordered them to electrocute me_?"

Her finger twitched on the trigger. Now he looked surprised.

"What? No! They found a random ghost hunter getting near their quote-unquote 'king', and they freaked out." He looked wistful for a moment. "If only they were as good at keeping the other ghosts in the Ghost Zone as they are at bothering me. I'm really sorry about that by the way. What a way to repay you for helping me, honestly."

Valerie lowered her gun as she remembered the last time they'd crossed paths. His cousin, Dani, wasn't a bad person; she was honestly a very friendly, enthusiastic, and cute girl. Not to mention, he had looked so- so _human_ when he had thought his cousin was gone. And he was talking about owing her when she was the one who unintentionally put the half-human girl in danger? She pursed her lips, and then deactivated her board but not her suit. She rubbed her arm to ward off the freezing air(her suit didn't have heating, after all), and glared at Phantom when she saw him notice. He stood up quickly, causing her first to start, and then roll her eyes as he moved slower, in order not to spook her. As if.

He floated down the steps, cloak fluttering behind him, to the door and cracked it open a bit, looking too secretive for her liking. She rubbed her thumb on her gun barrel for comfort. A few moments later a ghost handed a heap of fabric to Phantom, who nodded and thanked them audibly before closing the door with his foot and flying back up to her. The cape floated around him, defying gravity the same way he did. She tilted her head and then blinked in surprise as he dumped a heap of blankets on her, chuckling at her bewildered expression.

"Yeah, it's pretty cold here, so we have a bunch of these on hand for people."

Valerie couldn't really feel the blankets with her suit on, and there was no way the suit was coming off, but the sentiment was appreciated. She gathered the blankets in order to have a free range of movement, and then remembered why she had come in the first place. She hardened her gaze as she turned to look at Phantom, who was hovering upside down cross-legged, the cloak still hovering around his back.

"I saw your ghost lackeys drag Danny Fenton into the Ghost Zone. Where is he?"

She demanded. Phantom looked nervous and guilty, like he'd been caught in a lie. He closed his eyes for a moment before sighing.

"Alright, follow me."

Valerie reluctantly wrapped the blankets around her shoulders and followed him to a small door she hadn't noticed before in the back of the room. He gave her a pleading, 'don't freak out' look before opening the door and gesturing inside. She slowly turned into the room to see the floor plastered with blankets and pillows, like a little nest, and three people. Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, and Danny Fenton sat looking up expectantly at her. She gaped for a moment, before turning to Phantom, who had slipped in behind her and was grinning sheepishly.

"It gets kinda boring all alone in here waiting for my required hours of office to be over, so I normally hang out with these guys. It's only fair to tell you that we know who you are and all four of us work together to hunt ghosts too."

Valerie spouted out the first question that came to mind, still somewhat shocked.

"Why did Danny look like he didn't want to go?"

"He was worried the ghosts summoning him would alert his family to his friendship with me."

"You all know who I am?"

"Yup. Y'know, I think I hear Dora calling me, probably about clothes… Well, play nice!"

Phantom grinned and eased the door shut after him, absconding and leaving Valerie.

She looked at the three sitting before her. Tucker waved, Danny sent her a smile, and Sam hesitantly patted the blanket-covered spot next to her, in a gesture of friendship. Valerie only paused for a moment before deactivating her suit completely and sitting down with them, a shy smile spreading across her face.

Maybe some people understood after all.

* * *

**Valerie is actually a lot easier to write for than I expected... Probably because she's so rad and kickass. There are so many cool revelation fics with her(not enoughhhh), so I just wanted some bonding. Go make friends Valerie. Go on, be friendly.**

**Also yes, in this Danny has been practicing and has more or less mastered one duplicate in order to not be completely useless at normal life. Takes a lot of stress off him. He also filled Sam and Tucker in on what was going on with Val so that's why literally nobody is surprised. **

**Annyyyhoowww, review if you enjoyed it and tell me what you think? Thanks!**


End file.
